New Bill Targets Belize’s Energy Generation Shortfall  

The Briceño administration is looking to attract investors to help close Belize’s energy generation gap. Prime Minister Briceño has introduced the Domestic Energy Generation and Storage Incentive Bill 2026, which aims to encourage investment in large-scale solar power and battery storage. He says the goals behind the legislation are not new.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño 

“I want to remind government, those on the other side when they were on this side of the House, knows this. And also to remind my colleagues that we are not doing nothing new here. What we are proposing is something that is already in the act. It was being done by individual companies. It is BAPCOL down south when they for their diesel generating plant they were given these incentives. Now, what we are doing is to remove you from having to go pass a bill for every single company and just put it directly into one bill and once they meet the qualifications that they will be able to access this. Again, there are many reasons why we are doing, but two important reasons, that there is certainty when someone wants to invest in energy or solar energy and secondly to remove the subjectivity of ministers and the technical people. Sometimes you know how things work, because oh I don’t like you and I won’t give it to you. But under this act, it will be that once you meet and qualify you will be able to get these incentives.”

 

Briceño says the bill will give energy investors clearer rules and greater certainty while removing the need for individual approvals that could leave incentive decisions open to ministerial discretion.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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